Washington still has time to walk among mammoths. At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Nick Cave: Mammoth remains on view, free of charge, through January 3, 2027. Commissioned by the museum, it is Cave’s first solo exhibition in Washington, DC, and the museum’s largest-ever commission by a single artist.
Cave remakes the galleries into an immersive environment marked by the crafted hides and bones of mammoths and a video projection in which the long-dead animals come to life. Around them, hundreds of transformed found objects — from vintage tools to his grandmother’s thimble collection — are presented like paleontological specimens on a massive light table, each small thing gaining mammoth meaning together.
This is also Cave’s most personal work. It draws on his childhood in rural Chariton County, Missouri, where his grandparents farmed and where quilts, tools and clothing they made were part of everyday life. Organized by curator Sarah Newman, the exhibition invites visitors to consider their own connections with the natural world and with the everyday objects and histories that shape a life.
The museum, at 8th and G Streets NW, is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and admission is free. Happy City News recommends not waiting until the final weeks: this joyful, imaginative show is one of Washington’s most memorable art experiences of the season.
Photo: Zack Frank, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Wikimedia Commons
